Warranty

[tiger094]

reading some of the forums has me concerned about warranty issues. Seems that there are water marks being left(keey swipes). Is this something you are working on at diablo? We need to know

[djensen9367]

Diablo Predator is detectable and there is no way to avoid it. Lost an injector in Calif, covered under warranty but it took 1 week to get on the road. (over 1400.00 in motel expenses etc). I have over 60k on the truck so nothing covered by 3/36 Truck still had a miss at idle and low power. Got back home to Oregon and took it in to a dealer. They replaced two more injectors but still had a dead cylinder. Everything takes time as it all has to be approved by Star. No problems with intake, gauges, tranny work, GDP lift pump etc. Both Dealers have been great. Not being able to find the problem, Star had them pull info from the computer. That is when it happened, FLASH DOES NOT MATCH WHAT WAS IN THE VEHICLE FROM THE FACTORY, and is an older flash, this shows definite evidence of an after market power adding device. The predator has not been on for quite sometime (and was only used for a very short time) due to all the problems with change on the fly etc. I am not blaming the Diablo Predator for my problems, just pointing out that it is easily found. Nothing said about key counts etc as all they needed to see was the older flash and wrong number.
They have been fair as there is no charge for all the work done so far (diagnostics, injectors etc), but moving forward it will be all on my dime. I am not complaining as if you PLAY you Pay. I am just letting everyone know that if you buy the Predator or already have it installed (I am sure other loaders fall into the same category), the minute they check the computer you are screwed. You can quote all the BS about they have to prove it caused the problem etc, go for it if you have the money to fight DC but I don’t think you will win as they are 100% in the right to deny once you add power. At present they re-flashed the chip to the correct info for my truck (did not fix the problem) and are in the process of running a compression check to see if the problem is internal or an electrical issue (it takes time as no spark plugs, so not quick and ez). I am sure I won’t get out of there for less than two or three grand (500.00 spent already just on the re-flash and tests). We can proceed faster as they only need to call Star for technical advice, not permission. Results of compression test. #6 only has 200 lbs, should be a minimum of 350 lbs. They will have the head pulled after the weekend to see what the damage is.

[duckslayer]

I have a 05 dodge ram 3500 with a predator chip and a predator programmer, gauges on my pillar, 5 inch exhaust from turbo back, air raid system. when I take it to the dealer they sad they reflashed the program trying to solve the problem I am having with the alituide sensor and they don't say anything to me , so far 2 dealerships.

[Dodgezilla]

They won't find it it if they just reflash your ECM. They have to pull the info in order to find it. You just have to be sure to pull the Predator off the truck before getting reflashed....

[gdahms]

i take it that the flash that was in your (djensen) truck was the one the predator put back in when you pulled the tune back off. i wonder if you had had a dealer reflash the ECM if it would have still flagged the older than stock flash?..

[RRAM]

when a flash is done its like formatting your harddrive it overrights everything and maybe puts some new programming in if Dodge has upgraded there stuff. if they flashed your truck with a tune in it you would have a nice blue paper weight as you could not retune it. They would have to download the info and look at it to see that something was up. From my experience with dealers and mech. around here they flash first and ask questions later. They tend to like to reflash then start to look for problem areas and codes. I am sure there are exceptions those hardcore lookout for the big company guys.

[Cookiemanster]

I was told by the shop foreman at my regular Dodge dealership that Dodge is developing a special handheld tool specifically for locating non-factory tunes/parameters on our trucks. Don't know how much truth there is to that but I've known him a long time and he's a straight shooter.

[Dodgezilla]

You know, I never even paid attention to what tune the Predator may be putting in the truck. I assumed that it was putting the exact tune that it pulled when it was writing the performance tunes. I know the guys at S@#$%^ always have the latest Dodge flash/program available....

[madmanwithmouse]

I dont think it tells you what flash version it copyies/reverts to when you put the stock tune back in. Ya know I think if dodge would leave all the engine stuff up to cummins and not mess with it then we wouldn't even need an engine warranty, cause if would be about 100 times more reliable.